Finland Confronts Challenge to Overcome Racism

By Katja Heinonen, Reuters, Saturday 11 November 2000, 9:34 PM
ET

HELSINKI (Reuters)—Television footage of Finnish and Somali
youths fighting in a Helsinki suburb has confronted Finns with what it
is like to be a foreigner living in their country.

A group of Finns assaulted a Somali youngster, which led to
retaliation by Somali and Iraqi youths. Parents, fearing their
children could be attacked on their way to school, kept about 60
Somali youngsters at home for several days after the fight.

The incident sparked a national debate over racism, with officials,
ministers and President Tarja Halonen all condemning the violence.

The recent increase of racism in Finland is a worrying
phenomenon, Labor Minister Tarja Filatov told a Council of Europe
meeting on racism last month. We should not close our eyes to
racist incidents, however small they may seem.

Foreign nationals in Finland comprise only 2.5 percent of the
country's 5.2 million population compared with nearly 10 percent
in Germany. The small percentage is due to Finland's location on
the fringe of Europe, an historically tougher immigration policy than
those of its Nordic neighbors, and a unique linguistic and cultural
heritage.

But Finland is slowly changing. The country has seen the number of
immigrants rise from some 18,000 in 1987 to 90,000 at the start of
2000.

And with the percentage of pensioners forecast to rise more quickly
than the OECD average, the country will soon need fresh faces to keep
the economy booming.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has
forecast that Finland's ratio of people of working age to those of
pensionable age will fall to two in 2035 from the current four, some
15 years ahead of the OECD average.

I fear (racism) is becoming (a bigger problem), and I actually fear
it is one already...actions should be taken while we still can control
it, said Magdalena Jaakkola of the Population Research Institute.

(Racism) is a serious problem...improvement can been seen in
actions by officials and media, but for ordinary people on the street,
it is unbearable, said Mulki Molsa, who represents Somalis on the
Labor Ministry's ethnic relations commission.

Rising Racist Attitudes, Silence A Serious Problem

Recent studies show that racist attitudes in Finland -- especially
toward Russians, Arabs and Somalis -- have risen in the past 13 years,
although those toward foreigners were more positive now than during
the deep recession of 1993.

A 1997 study by Eurobarometer, a survey on racism and xenophobia
requested by the European Commission (news—web sites), showed
that 10 percent of Finns considered themselves very racist, while the
average for European Union (EU) countries was nine percent.

But Jaakkola, who has studied Finns' attitudes toward foreigners
since 1987, said responses to other Eurobarometer questions and to her
own studies showed Finns' attitudes were less racist than those of
Europeans on average.

Violent attacks, especially on Somalis who arrived as refugees fleeing
civil war in their homeland in the early 1990s, do take place, but
more rarely than in Europe in general, said police officer Kalle
Kekomaki.

And no anti-immigrant parties have either emerged in Finland like
those in France, Germany, Austria, Denmark and Norway, which
researchers and police say is due largely to a lack of charismatic
leaders and the still small number of foreigners.

With the far-right groupings we have, either they are groups of
young in which music and booze play quite a big role, while older
groups are made up of middle-aged alcoholics, Kekomaki
said. They do not gather support from large masses.

Jaakkola said racism in Finland appeared mainly in the form of job
discrimination.

Outside the workplace Molsa said the biggest problem was verbal abuse
by ordinary Finns on the street.

Officials, police and researchers said the silent approval of racism
by a large part of the population was also a problem.

The biggest problem in my view is that there are so many people who
do not take any view on the matter, who think this does not concern
them, said Risto Laakkonen, a member of the Labor Ministry's
ethnic relations commission.

Jaakkola said her study from last year showed that most Finns were
least negative about immigration from Anglo-Saxon and Nordic
countries. Their attitudes toward Russians, Arabs and Somalis were the
most negative.

She said that in general those with high education, contact with
foreigners, women and young people had the most positive attitudes
toward foreigners, while those in rural areas, pensioners and the
unemployed had the most negative views.

Must Teach Finns Tolerance, Do To Integrate Immigrants

Laakkonen said the problem should be attacked from both ends, with
Finns taught to be more tolerant. Ethnic minorities should be
encouraged to join civil organizations, sports groups, labor unions
and political parties.

Several people with immigrant backgrounds were elected to the local
councils in recent municipal elections.

The government is also preparing a plan of action to combat racism and
ethnic discrimination which includes setting up a post to monitor
official discrimination, and rules to promote hiring people from
ethnic minorities in the public sector.

The program also includes a plan to set up a project in which
immigrant youngsters would be trained and encouraged to seek education
in the growing information technology, services and education sectors.

But a 28-year-old Somali male at a Helsinki metro station said
officials should be more open in declaring immigrants an important
part of the Finnish society.

People never say openly that immigrants benefit society, he
said. We have to get acceptance. There is no use spending money on
immigrants if we are not given a sign that we belong to society.